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Case logo Mobile banking app for a major Kazakhstan bank Altyn-i

  • Client:
    Altyn Bank - one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan.
  • Request:
    Develop a mobile banking app for the iOS and Android platforms.
  • Result:
    Creation of a complete mobile banking app in a short period. Continuous support of the solution.
  • Technologies:
    • iOS SDK
    • Android SDK
    • iD Mobile SDK
    • PDF Viewer
    • tumarlicenselibrary

Challenge

Altyn Bank, a major bank in Kazakhstan, made a request to develop a mobile banking app for its customers.

The bank provided us with a very detailed specification which contained all the requirements for the application and its scenarios. Subsequently we ended up altering these requirements significantly in order to create a solution.

The main application requirement is that the bank's clients could solve the problems on their mobile phones - manage funds and accounts, make transfers, apply for loans, savings deposits, etc.

The bank was dedicated to achieving three main goals with the application:

•  Payment aggregator for any transactions.

•  Quality customer service.

•  Additional service for non-clients.

The bank's goals and requirements were broad and would have required considerable efforts and time to develop and launch the app. At the same time client risked losing a large percentage of their customers. Therefore we suggested to release the first version of the app with minimum functionality within six months and then gradually develop the the updates.

Solution

Cogniteq specialists had to develop a reliable and convenient banking application for iOS and Android platforms in a short period of time.
Our experts have designed features that allow the users to make payments, top-up the balance of Altyn bank cards up for free, and conduct transfers from a card to a bank account or any other card. The app makes it easy to move money between Altyn and external cards.

As for the payments we created a separate tab and implemented several types of smart automatic payments. The first type is regular payments (the user must indicate the sum and frequency of payments). The second type is irregular payments (the user can set a payment limit for each operation).

One of the most interesting features of the app is its automatic subscription. For instance after the tax payment the system itself will track new tax bills and notify the user.

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  • Difficulties in development
    Developing payments based on custom scenarios was the most complex task in terms of business logic. Many banking operations (ordinary payments, customized payments, automatic payments) seem very similar to users. However, the bank must ensure that customers' transactions are completed accurately and appropriately, they are different operations. Our goal was to guarantee the correct display of these operations in the application and to help users distinguish between them.
  • Design
    In order to to speed up the development process, we have used standard design elements with animations. The purpose of animations is feedback for users when loading large amounts of data.
  • Security
    Altyn Bank presented our developers with high-level requirements for the security of the application. We achieved complete data protection with the following steps:
    • Development of reliable mechanisms of identification and authentication - verification by SMS code, fingerprint, and ID scan.
    • Introduction of one-time passwords to confirm transactions.
    • Ensuring payment security with 3D Secure technology.
    • Set-up of limits on card payment transactions.
  • Testing
    In order to develop a mobile banking app, we needed test user profiles, bank cards and accounts. We devised all combinations of accounts, loans and cards in advance and created plenty of representative test clients.

    At the first testing stage we faced and overcame many challenges. Banking APIs have features that look like a bug to mobile developers. For example, the rules of the bank state that clients can perform some operations only from their accounts without using the card. We had to pay close attention to these features as during testing the developers could substitute card identifiers but simulate the account operation which consequently ed to an API error.
  • Mobile Banking Features
    The application has the following features:
    • 24-hour access to accounts, account histories, and transactions
    • Account opening capabilities
    • Bills and mortgage payments
    • Opening of deposits,
    • Loans and credit cards
    • International money transfers
    • Managing cards and accounts
    • SMS notifications
    • Fraud warnings
    • Push notifications about new bank offers.

Result

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    Success
    The Altyn-i application became the first mobile bank app in Kazakhstan.
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    Rapid and straight-forward banking operations
    The app now includes all Altyn bank products - accounts, loans, and cards. Customer feedback reports that money transfer has become exceptionally simple and fast. The user can check their account any time and, transfer the required amount to another account.
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    Further cooperation
    Because of the successful completion of the project Altyn Bank invited our specialists to work on a project to create a web application for Altyn-i. Today Cogniteq is responsible for the optimization and implementation of the web part of the project.
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    Plans for the future
    As planned our further cooperation will result in expanding the mobile app functionality developing money transfers by phone number, adding cash back, accumulated interest, live chat with operators and more.